Free Realms, Sony Online Entertainment's youth-targeted free-to-play PC MMO, has reached a milestone of eight million unique user registrations, the publisher announced today.

Developed by SOE's San Diego headquarters, Free Realms launched April 28 of last year, giving it an average monthly registration rate of nearly 900,000. The game is free to download and play, with an optional paid subscription conferring various bonuses, as well as in-game microtransactions.

Registrations seem to have slowed somewhat since their peak growth: the game had accrued two million registrations a month after launch and five million three months after launch, meaning its average monthly registration count since last August is approximately 500,000.

Sony did not indicate the size of the game's current active player base.

"Free Realms is more than just a virtual world for our players; it is a portal for imagination," said SOE president John Smedley in a statement. "Our job as developers is to listen to and predict what they want and give them the tools that inspire and compel them to share their experiences with eight million others."

Free Realms was nominated for this year's Best New Social/Online Game award at the Game Developers Choice Awards, to be held on March 11 during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.